A Gravity Distillery

Last Monday I had the honor of visiting Mackmyra distillery in Gävle!It's so amazingly fun that we have a 100% Swedish-made whiskey which, without any exceptions, makes this full out.

The day started with me meeting up with a representative from Mackmyra, Anton Öberg, at the Central Station in Stockholm. We then traveled by car the two hours drive that Gävle is located from Stockholm.
It was a very pleasant drive as Anton and I realized that we have very much in common, especially regarding delicious spirits, haha.

Once we arrived at the distillery, we took a walk around the office to meet all the enthusiasts (employees), after which we got a tour by Mackmyra's own smoker Håkan Ekström. We took a look at the smoke house, the gravity distillery and one of their many storages where they have several thousands of barrels stored for ageing.

- But what is a gravity distillery then?
This gravity distillery is one of a kind, the only one in the whole world actually.
It works like this; The grain, the yeast and the water are processed through the 7 storey high building that houses the distillery, where each floor contains different parts of the process.
For example, on the 7th floor the cleaning and sorting of the grain malt that it is filled with is located, on the 3rd floor the fermenting room is located where there are 12 fermentation tanks which hold approx. 9000 liters each. On the 2nd floor the distillation is located and downstairs on the 1st floor the raw spirit is stored.
And all this happens through the power of gravity as the process starts from the top and proceeds downwards through the building. Amazing.
Also, by doing this, up to 45% less energy is used compared to the previous distillery they used.

After a lunch at an incredibly nice Indian restaurant located in Gävle city, we took a drive for about 45 minutes north of Gävle to Bodås where Mackmyra has its main store in a huge mine 50 meters below ground level.
Here a lot of exciting work is going on, which was very inspiring to see and know more about. ;)

After a few inspiring hours down in this mine several meters below ground we went out into the sun and on to the roads again, this time to look at Mackmyra's former distillery that initially was used to make its whiskey until 2011 when the world unique gravitational distillery was built that is used today.
When we arrive at this former distillery, we met up with Rickard Aldén who tested the boilers with water to see that the system still works. This because they want to start this distillery again, to make gin!
So incredibly exciting! The project is called Mackmyra LAB Distillery.
I had a chat and tour with Rickard Aldén who is responsible for this project and also the head Craft Distiller.
I got to smell several scent samples and mixtures which are tested to see which one to put into production, as well as getting to know how the manufacturing itself will proceed.